I got mine from the LHS earlier today but with the days getting shorter, I may not be able to maiden it tonight since nothing is charged. I already have two 120 mAh packs and a 180 so I bought a 200 mAh pack along with the plane. I can't wait to see how it handles slow flight and if it can perform the most basic 3D maneuvers.

For the first time in my life I picked up an airplane from LHS without reading and investigating about it before :-) and it happened to be this new Sbach. Would you guys tell me what bettery will give me the best hovering and 3d flying outdoors? The store didn't have the suggested 180 or 200 mh in stock and had only 300, decided to wait untill tomorrow for new batteries to arrive, any suggestion which one to pick? Also the only charger I have is for 1cell and the original triton, will anyone know if I could use the triton for quick charge the 2 cells for the Sbach?

For the first time in my life I picked up an airplane from LHS without reading and investigating about it before :-) and it happened to be this new Sbach. Would you guys tell me what bettery will give me the best hovering and 3d flying outdoors? The store didn't have the suggested 180 or 200 mh in stock and had only 300, decided to wait untill tomorrow for new batteries to arrive, any suggestion which one to pick? Also the only charger I have is for 1cell and the original triton, will anyone know if I could use the triton for quick charge the 2 cells for the Sbach?

Almost anything but E-flight batteries are golden. Don't buy any more E-flight batteries! I'm using a combination of Hyperion 240mAh 2S and Babbelbatt's 180 2S which are great for the Beast but a little small for the Sbach. RCBabbel is a forum member who crafts really nice light packs to order. For the price of an E-flight, you can have the best instead!

Picked up 2 of these babies from the LHS today, WAY too windy to fly today and didn't even bother bringing my tx to work, so tomorrow will be the maiden. I had the V1 and liked it but LOVE my beast 3d so I fully expect to fall head over heels for the sbach 3d. SOOOOO glad they came out with this, and in bnf basic to boot!

Okay - not what you think - not HAVING second thoughts, just sharing the thoughts from a second round of flying.

Got a chance to get out and fly a few more batteries through it and it's still a ball. getting a LITTLE more comfortable with it, but it still looks like a speck in a good portion of the video. Here are my second impressions:

1) Knife edge is much better - thanks Brian/Joel for the recommendation of pushing that battery back all the way. Video doesn't do it justice, but the wind was gusting over 10 mph and the knife edge was solid as a rock.

2) It likes to "sit" in the air. Not sure how else to describe it, but it's kind of a funny flight characteristic. Fly it, pull a manuever, drop the throttle, and it seems like it's default reaction is to "squat" in midair like it is just sitting on the ground on it's landing gear. You'll see it do this a couple times in the video, especially after a spiralling descent. It also likes to do this when coming in for landing at low speed.

3) it handles wind VERY well. I would never have flown my GeeBee today, and I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the big T 28 much - the winds would go from dead calm to in-your-face gusty and obnoxious. The Sbach has the power and stability to make it enjoyable even in these conditions.

4) The AS3X seems much more evident in this bird than the Mig or the Gee Bee - may just be me, but it ain't subtle - you know you're not flying alone. A great example is getting up high, dropping the throttle back and letting the plane drop - then try giving it a little power and using hard rudder. could have been the wind, but it definitely didn't do what I thought it would do. In fact, it didn't really do much at all! Gonna have to play around with this more.

5) Okay, orientation . . . I thought it would be tougher this a.m. when the sun was low, but I flew at noon (instead of having lunch - that's how addictive this thing is - I NEVER miss a meal. ) and had it not been for the shine on the canopy, there were several times I didn't know which way was up. Not sure how to fix this without marring the really nice paint job. I might have to bite the bullet and put some neon orange on the bottom of the wing, or maybe just some mylar inside the canopy to hopefully reflect the light even more.

6) Landings are still wierd. Darn thing gets going so slowly that you forget how fast it's going VERTICALLY until it hits the pavement. The wind was really obnoxious today, though. Up on the hill there it felt like the thing would just run out of air every time it got within a foot of the deck and it would just suddenly drop. We get some wierd air currents in the mountains, though, so it may have been a function of that.

People ponder the upgrades.. what prop, motor, battery??
From experience, the 3000kv motor will completely outperform the 2500kv on any battery or prop. I have seen NO downside other than it prefers stronger batteries.
I have heard of complaints of "noise" and some "prefer" the 2500kv, but rest assured,
this motor is for people who can use the power.
A Babble 240, 5030, and 3000kv is the ultimate combo.
If you have a GeeBee or Styker lying around, it only takes a single tiny bolt to remove/install.

Quote from whichway : 6) Landings are still wierd. Darn thing gets going so slowly that you forget how fast it's going VERTICALLY until it hits the pavement. The wind was really obnoxious today, though. Up on the hill there it felt like the thing would just run out of air every time it got within a foot of the deck and it would just suddenly drop. We get some wierd air currents in the mountains, though, so it may have been a function of that.
My experience EXACTLY!!! No it's not you,,, just one of the weird characteristics of this plane. For me I've found you have to FLY it all the way to the ground. :-)
Sooo the 3000kv motor with 5x3 prop???? I have two of these little gems,, so where do I get that motor and prop???

Okay - not what you think - not HAVING second thoughts, just sharing the thoughts from a second round of flying.

Got a chance to get out and fly a few more batteries through it and it's still a ball. getting a LITTLE more comfortable with it, but it still looks like a speck in a good portion of the video. Here are my second impressions:

1) Knife edge is much better - thanks Brian/Joel for the recommendation of pushing that battery back all the way. Video doesn't do it justice, but the wind was gusting over 10 mph and the knife edge was solid as a rock.

2) It likes to "sit" in the air. Not sure how else to describe it, but it's kind of a funny flight characteristic. Fly it, pull a manuever, drop the throttle, and it seems like it's default reaction is to "squat" in midair like it is just sitting on the ground on it's landing gear. You'll see it do this a couple times in the video, especially after a spiralling descent. It also likes to do this when coming in for landing at low speed.

3) it handles wind VERY well. I would never have flown my GeeBee today, and I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the big T 28 much - the winds would go from dead calm to in-your-face gusty and obnoxious. The Sbach has the power and stability to make it enjoyable even in these conditions.

4) The AS3X seems much more evident in this bird than the Mig or the Gee Bee - may just be me, but it ain't subtle - you know you're not flying alone. A great example is getting up high, dropping the throttle back and letting the plane drop - then try giving it a little power and using hard rudder. could have been the wind, but it definitely didn't do what I thought it would do. In fact, it didn't really do much at all! Gonna have to play around with this more.

5) Okay, orientation . . . I thought it would be tougher this a.m. when the sun was low, but I flew at noon (instead of having lunch - that's how addictive this thing is - I NEVER miss a meal. ) and had it not been for the shine on the canopy, there were several times I didn't know which way was up. Not sure how to fix this without marring the really nice paint job. I might have to bite the bullet and put some neon orange on the bottom of the wing, or maybe just some mylar inside the canopy to hopefully reflect the light even more.

6) Landings are still wierd. Darn thing gets going so slowly that you forget how fast it's going VERTICALLY until it hits the pavement. The wind was really obnoxious today, though. Up on the hill there it felt like the thing would just run out of air every time it got within a foot of the deck and it would just suddenly drop. We get some wierd air currents in the mountains, though, so it may have been a function of that.

I haven't flown mine but have 2 Beast 3d's and literally tens of hours on those birds so I'm intimately familiar with a 3D AS3X plane. From what I'm hearing it's the same as the beastie, so as has been mentioned, just harrier land it. That's the ONLY way I land my beast, and it's to the point that I don't even take the wheels off when flying on grass, just harrier it in. Good practice is on a nice calm day, play a game I call "touch the tail". Basically fly around a parking lot or other paved area in slow high alpha flight and try to touch the tail wheel on the ground, JUST the tail wheel. What you will find doing that is a lot of the time you will gently land the plane instead, which while not the point of the game "touch the tail" is a REALLY good way to practice harrier landings. Once you get the hang of it, you can literally land it at your feet with almost zero rollout. The key on these to high alpha is TRUST AS3X. Don't fight it, don't TOUCH aileron when in high alpha and low, just rudder it around and use throttle for altitude change, with rudder mostly if not all the way up. Sometimes the wings rock on my beast, but AS3X will correct it (and actually my UMX 4-Site without as3x rocks in HA flight too but always stays stable, the key is to leave aileron alone despite your reaction instincts to correct it).

People ponder the upgrades.. what prop, motor, battery??
From experience, the 3000kv motor will completely outperform the 2500kv on any battery or prop. I have seen NO downside other than it prefers stronger batteries.
I have heard of complaints of "noise" and some "prefer" the 2500kv, but rest assured,
this motor is for people who can use the power.
A Babble 240, 5030, and 3000kv is the ultimate combo.
If you have a GeeBee or Styker lying around, it only takes a single tiny bolt to remove/install.

Don't forget about the 2300kv motor with a 5043 prop... also way better than the 2500 on any prop and within a hair of the 3000 combo. The tiny bit I give up in performance is more than made up for by the peace while flying.

Good practice is on a nice calm day, play a game I call "touch the tail". Basically fly around a parking lot or other paved area in slow high alpha flight and try to touch the tail wheel on the ground, JUST the tail wheel. What you will find doing that is a lot of the time you will gently land the plane instead, which while not the point of the game "touch the tail" is a REALLY good way to practice harrier landings. Once you get the hang of it, you can literally land it at your feet with almost zero rollout. The key on these to high alpha is TRUST AS3X. Don't fight it, don't TOUCH aileron when in high alpha and low, just rudder it around and use throttle for altitude change, with rudder mostly if not all the way up.

Tom

Great advice, Tom. I will definitely be trying this (as soon as my hands stop shaking every time I fly this thing!

Just got back from the field. I didn't get around to doing the static RPM testing, but I flew the Hyp 500 with the factory prop, and I flew the Hyp 240 & 500 with the 5030. I'm editing the video now.

Surprisingly, the factory prop seems to outperform the 5030 in my plane and my flight-conditions. That was definitely not the case with my V1 Sbach, although I know that Bobly & a few others reported that the factory prop outperformed the 5030 in their V1s. I'll let you guys be the judge, once I post the videos. Also, the Hyp 500 is definitely faster than the TP 325, but I think the TP 325 provides better vertical. The CG wasn't bad with the 500 all the way back, but I could definitely feel the extra weight during aerobatic maneuvers and also on approach. However, it will be a great choice for windy days or endurance flying.
.
Joel

It looks so sweet yet doesn't say Sbach anywhere on it. I wonder if that's because Sbachs are no longer called Sbachs and are now officially called the Extreme Air XA40 and XA42. That happened back in March of this year and 7 months later, they are still being called Sbachs by the model companies. Not that I really care... I just love Sbachs!